The Spirit Will Help You

(John 15:26-16:15)

I. Introduction.
A. Orientation.
This morning, Jesus told us
That if we love and follow Him,
Were going to have more enemies
In this world than friends
A lot more.

Thankfully, we will have friends

The Father, Jesus, and the Spirit will love us,
The angels will protect for us,
And well have many brothers and sisters
Who will care for us more
Than our natural families.

But well have more enemies.

Think about the end of Revelation
When Satan is finally released
And gathers everyone that belongs to him
Against the church.
The camp of the saints is small,
And the army of the enemy is large.

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When we are joined to Jesus by faith
We are enlisted in that small army
And are called to face the world.

If were becoming like Jesus,

If were faithful in shining the light He has given us,
We wont be popular in this world
Even as He wasnt
But we must shine it
Because its the only way
Anyone will ever find Him.

Jesus wanted us to know

What we would have to face
Before we had to face it,
So that when we did,
We wouldnt be stumbled
And tempted to turn away ourselves
From the only path that leads to life.

B. Preview.
Tonight, Jesus tells us
That He hasnt left us to face this on our own:
He has given us Someone to help: His Spirit.

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Jesus has gone to heaven,
But He has sent His Spirit
To convict the world,
To give us the power to testify of Jesus,
And to guide us into all the truth.

II. Sermon.
A. First, Jesus said He was going to heaven,
But He tells us that this would be to our advantage.

When Jesus told His disciples He was leaving,

It naturally made them sad.
Jesus says in verses 5-6, But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of
you asks Me, Where are You going? But because I have said these things to
you, sorrow has filled your heart.
Can you imagine what it would have been like
To walk with Jesus,
To hear Him preach the Gospel,
To see His miracles,
To hear Him teach on godly living,
To see Him live that out perfectly day by day,
In loving His brothers and sisters
Even His enemies
And to experience that love in person?

The disciples were going to miss Him

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Both because He had loved them,
And because they loved Him.

We know something of what they were feeling

Even though we havent had the experience

Of walking with Jesus physically on earth
And seeing Him with our eyes,
We have seen Him through the eyes of faith.

Even though we havent experienced His love

As directly as they did,
We have experienced it in our souls
By His Holy Spirit.

We love Him,
Just like those Peter wrote to
Who were in a similar situation as ours:
He writes in 1 Peter 1:8, And though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and
though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy
inexpressible and full of glory.

We know what its like to want to be with Him:

As Peter did,
When Jesus announced He was leaving,
But they couldnt follow right away.

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He said in John 13:37, Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down
my life for You.

Or as Paul,
Who said he would rather be with Jesus now,
Rather than having to wait.
He wrote to the Philippians, For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I
am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know
which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire
to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better (Phil. 1:21-23).

The disciples didnt want Jesus to leave,

But Jesus said it would actually better for them
And for us
If He did
Not just because He was about
To lay down His life for us
To save us from our sins,
But because of Whom He would send
Once He was glorified in heaven.
He tells us in verse 7, But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go
away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will
send Him to you.
If the Helper was to come, Jesus had to leave
He had to be crowned with glory and honor,
He had to take up His reign over this world,
He had to be endued with all power and authority

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Before He could send His Spirit to help us.
He had to leave, before the Spirit could come.

How would the Spirit help them?

Jesus tells us He would in three ways:
By convicting the world,
By bearing testimony regarding Jesus,
And by teaching and guiding them.

He works with us in much the same way today.

B. First, He helps by convicting the world.

Jesus says in verse 8, And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning
sin and righteousness and judgment.
To convict means to show someone
That theyve done something wrong
And to summon them to repentance
Jesus says when the Spirit came
Thats what He would do.

1. First, He would convict the world of sin:

We read in verse 9, Concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me.

This was primarily pointed towards the Jews

Because of their sin of refusing to believe in Jesus
And their handing Him over to be crucified.

On the Day of Pentecost,

When Jesus sent the Helper from heaven
When He came in power as Jesus said He would
Peter preached and the result was quite different:
They were convicted of that sin of unbelief:
Luke writes, Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said
to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? (Acts
2:37).

Knowing that the Spirit

Will also do this as we evangelize
Can be very encouraging.
As we saw this morning
When we shine the light of Gods truth,
We will likely be hated
But if the Spirit works through what we say,
They will be convicted
And may by His grace,
Turn to Him in faith.

We know we cant convert anyone.

We might be able to convince them
Of the truth of Christianity,
But we cant change their hearts.
The way God changes hearts

Usually begins with the conviction of sin

Particularly, the sin of unbelief.

2. Jesus says, second,

That the Spirit would convict the world of righteousness:
In verse 10, we read, And concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father
and you no longer see Me.

The Jews accused Jesus of being a wicked man

Some even charged Him with being in league with the devil.
But the fact that the Father raised Him from the dead,
Took Him up into heaven,
And that He was no longer seen on earth
Was His vindication from the Father
That He was in fact righteous.

The Spirit would not only bring conviction of sin,

He would also bring the conviction
That Jesus was the Messiah.
Again, consider what He did
On the Day of Pentecost.

Those the Lord sends us to today

Also have different ideas about Jesus:
Some think He never existed.

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Others think if He did, He was a deceiver.
Others believe He was a good man,
And still others that He was a prophet.
How are we going to convince them
That He is the Son of God?
Its not really something we can do
But the Spirit can.
He can show them not only who Jesus is,
But what He can provide:
The only righteousness God will accept.

3. Finally, Jesus says the Spirit

Would convince the world regarding judgment
Particularly, regarding Jesus judgment of and victory over
The enemy of our souls: the devil.
He says in verse 11, And concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world
has been judged.

Jesus said earlier in John 12:31, Now judgment is upon this world; now the
ruler of this world will be cast out.
What He was saying was that through the cross,
He would deal a crushing blow to Satan:
Not only would He bind the devil,
But He would begin to plunder his house
Taking whomever He wished

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From the devils kingdom.

The Spirit brings the conviction that this is true:

That He can and will free from Satans dominion
Everyone who is willing to turn from their sins
And take hold of Jesus by faith.

C. Second, this is likely the testimony

Jesus said the Spirit will bear
In 15:26, When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that
is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me.

But notice, when the Spirit comes

He will also bring the power to testify:
In verse 27, Jesus says, And you will testify also, because you have been with Me
from the beginning.
Again, this is why Peter was able
To preach with such power on the Day of Pentecost,
And why the disciples had such power in their witness.

Jesus was speaking to His apostles in particular when He said this

He was intending to give them the power to testify
Of what they had seen and heard.

But its equally true that He has given us His Spirit

To give us the power to tell others
What we have experienced of Him through faith as well.

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How can we overcome our fears

Of what the world will do to us?
We can through the strength Jesus gives by His Spirit.
Paul writes, For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love
and discipline (2 Tim. 1:7).

D. Finally, Jesus says the Spirit would help them

By guiding them into the truth.
Jesus says in verses 12-15, I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot
bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all
the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He
will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He
will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are
Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.
Jesus is again promising what He had earlier:
That the Spirit would help them remember what He said
And teach them what they needed to know,
So that they could lay the foundation of the church
In the NT Scriptures.

The Lord hasnt promised to work with us

Exactly as He did with them
He hasnt promised us inspiration
The Spirit wont bring us new revelation
But He will help us to understand
What He said in His Word,

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And will open the eyes
Of as many as He wills to receive the truth.

All of this is say,

That though we might tend
To be afraid of what the Lord calls us to do
In bringing the Gospel to a hostile world,
Especially now that He is in heaven,
We dont need to be afraid:
He has given us help through His Spirit.

The Spirit is able to convict

Even if He doesnt intend that conviction
To bring them all the way to Jesus,
It will still restrain them from hurting us.

The Spirit is able to give us the power

To testify to the truth of the Gospel.
He will not only give us the boldness to speak,
But also to live the kind of life Jesus would live
So that we dont undercut our testimony with our lives.

And He is able to guide us into all the truth

Not only will He continually reveal
What Jesus meant by what He said to us,

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And give us the power to do it,
He will guide those Hes calling
Savingly to the Savior.

Since the Lord has promised

To give us such a powerful Helper,
Lets learn to trust Him
And lean on His ministry,
As we set our hearts to do our Lords work. Amen.

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